Abstract: This article, by treating 1956 as a year of critical transformations, explores why and how profound tension emerged in the communist world in the wake of Khrushchev’s de-stalinization efforts, especially between China and the Soviet Union, and between China, the Soviet Union and North Korea. It also discusses why and how the events of 1956 not only resulted in the Sino-Soviet split but also symbolized the beginning of the shattering of international communism as an alternative path to liberal capitalism toward modernity. In the meantime, changes of 1956 also widened the door for China to embark on Mao’s more radical “revolution-after-revolution” programs, leading up to the disastrous “Great Leap Forward” and "Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution."